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I was installing Xfec desktop environment in the Debian 8 OS. I logged in as root and command tasksel in the shell. Among the other chooses, I selected the Xfce

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At the time the installation is few seconds left, I get the message tasksel: apt-get failed (100).

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I did an sudo apt-get update but the issue seems stayed as it is after the next try. What to do now?

Arefe
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6 Answers6

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This just happened to me. In my case the problem was caused by an previously interrupted package transaction. The solution was to run:

dpkg --configure -a

After that, tasksel worked as expected.

(short quick answer, just in case it helps someone out!)

starfry
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  • As an addendum, if you get an error about missing dependencies you might need to run a `apt install -f` afterwards. – Bob Oct 18 '18 at 23:57
  • This saved me after accidentally killing tasksel in the middle of installing and removing software. Thank you! – borizzzzz Aug 26 '20 at 13:52
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1.Check your /etc/resolv.conf.

This means checking your DNS settings for visiting website correctly. You can Google Public DNS address on internet :)

2.Check your /etc/apt/sources.list

This means checking your "Ubuntu Update Servers" list for using "apt-update" command.

3.Run apt-get update && apt-get install vim(or whatever the app is) for testing to see if it works.

4.Reboot and try it again...

Thanks for guys who given any suggestions :)

welrod
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    This answer isn't very useful to inexperienced Linux users... a little more background on *what* to "check" would be helpful. – Dave Jul 09 '18 at 14:47
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    @Dave After over half a year of using Linux, I agree that the answer requires to be comprehensive. – Arefe Aug 26 '18 at 02:47
  • Since, this is the accepted answer and no answer seems to have the combination of explanation and remedies, I want to add a comment to request explanation as well. For me, `apt-get update` worked, not `dpkg --configure -a` – perennial_noob Oct 14 '19 at 01:42
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    this worked for me, but i also agree that skipping straight to the third option just coz of not knowing what to look for isn't ideal for an answer – davejoem Feb 05 '20 at 13:03
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I had this problem and both answers above helped me, I restarted it a couple of times and final time this worked

sudo apt-get update 
dpkg --configure -a

and finally

sudo tasksel
TheErminK
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  • Yup. It was the apt-get update that fixed it. Not sure if the dpkg --configure -a was required, but hey, why not? – frozenjim Feb 16 '23 at 15:21
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I had the same problem - the error code given by tasksel (100) is rather non-descriptive; I found out the actual reason why it failed in my case when running the tasksel command from the cli:

apt-get install kde-plasma-desktop

Gives the following error message:

0 upgraded, 904 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 680 MB of archives.
After this operation, 2,279 MB of additional disk space will be used.
E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.

After extending the root partition, the command completes without problems.

Fabien H. Dumay
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Try this:

sudo apt-get purge
sudo apt-get update
sudo tasksel
G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica'
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manchester
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I experienced this error after installing the gnome-shell package on raspbian with apt, subsequently uninstalling it, then trying to install GNOME again with tasksel.

I solved the problem by running sudo apt install gnome-software, which resolved a dependency conflict, and allowed tasksel to continue.

Benny Powers
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